An investor in Riverside Village in North Augusta has pleaded guilty and was sentenced in connection to a wire fraud case regarding the development.
Dwayne Peterson Davis, of Atlanta, has been sentenced to 29 months in prison and upon being released, will be on supervised release for 36 months. He must also pay $3.3 million in restitution
The court recommended that he be sent to FCI Montgomery and if not there, to a facility in Pensacola, Fla. Davis is ordered to surrender to U.S. Marshal for the district on a soon-to-be determined date that is no sooner than Nov. 19, 2025.
On Aug. 13, 2024 he was indicted by a federal grand jury for wire fraud and money laundering that was connected to a scheme to defraud Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO), his business partner, of more than $5 million.
According to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan in a 2024 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia that was issued after Davis was indicted, GEICO was the majority owner and Davis the minority owner PIS QOZ Fund 2018-A, LP. In 2018, GEICO contributed $26 million to the partnership for an investment in Riverside Village in North Augusta, S.C.
In 2021, GEICO agreed to contribute $5.91 million more to the partnership to help resolve a dispute regarding unpaid taxes, foreclosure proceedings and a construction lawsuit. The money was wired to an account for the partnership that Davis controlled. There was an understanding that Davis would use that money to pay the taxes, stop the foreclosure proceedings and settle the lawsuit. Davis was not authorized to use the money for other purposes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“But almost immediately after taking control of the $5.91 million, Davis allegedly began siphoning off money from the Partnership’s account and secretly transferring it to accounts that he controlled at other banks—accounts that were not related to the Partnership. In all, Davis surreptitiously transferred $5.9 million out of the Partnership’s account. Those transfers served no legitimate Partnership purpose and were allegedly made with the intent to defraud GEICO and the Partnership,” said the press release.
“Davis eventually used some of the diverted money to pay taxes owed by the Partnership, but he never made the payments to settle the lawsuit or stop the foreclosure proceedings,” said the press release. “Instead, Davis used the remaining money to pay his personal debts and expenses and to pay expenses related to business ventures that did not involve the Partnership or GEICO.”
